US airman who helped thwart French train attack is stabbed

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who was hailed as a hero for helping to tackle a gunman and thwart a terror attack on a French train in August, was stabbed in California and was in stable condition, an Air Force spokesman said Thursday.

Lt. Col. Christopher Karns said that he had no details on the circumstances surrounding the stabbing, which was being handled by local law enforcement officials. He said Stone was being treated in a hospital in the Sacramento area.

Stone, 23, and two of his childhood friends from Sacramento, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and college student Anthony Sadler, were vacationing in Europe over the summer when they took down a gunman on a Paris-bound passenger train, receiving sudden celebrity and worldwide accolades.

Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man with ties radical Islam, had boarded the train with a Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol and a box cutter.

A British businessman and a French-American also have been praised for their efforts to stop the gunman.

President Barack Obama met with the three Americans last month, praising them for their quick thinking and courage and calling them "the very best of America." They were also awarded France's highest honor by President Francois Hollande. The three appeared on late-night talk shows and received a hometown parade in their honor.

Stone suffered a cut thumb and other injuries in stopping the train attack. He is assigned to Travis Air Force Base in California.